The present invention relates to a metallic pipe and a method of making same.
The traditional method of making metallic pipe comprises roll forming a single piece of metallic material into a circular configuration and then securing the free ends of the roll formed material in completing the pipe construction.
The above pipe forming method as described for example in European Patent EP 0581208 B1 only allows the pipe to be made one at a time and as such is a relatively costly and time consuming process.
The present invention provides a novel method of forming metallic pipe in which a plurality of pipes can be made side by side with one another at one time in a much faster and more efficient manner than has been available in the past.
More particularly, a pipe made in accordance with the present invention is formed from a plurality of pipe sections which have opposite side flanges and in which the flanges of the pipe sections are brought together and then sealed with one another to hold them together in forming the pipe.
The novel concept of forming pipe sections with joinable flanges provides numerous benefits which will be made apparent from the description below.